Behind Facebook's dodgy video operation

Hank Green is what might be called a "vlogopreneur" — someone who's started a successful small business in online video. So naturally, he's annoyed at Facebook's new video operation.

Why? Two reasons: First, Facebook has been clocking eye-popping view counts with the use of autoplaying videos that are heavily favored in the site's feed algorithm. But because of that very method of presentation, Facebook's viewer retention falls off a cliff — after 30 seconds, almost 80 percent of people have stopped watching, far more than on YouTube. So Facebook counts as a view any play lasting more than three seconds. If those views were a currency, they wouldn't be worth very much.

Worse, a huge amount of that video is stolen. Green cites a study showing that of the top 1,000 Facebook videos from the first quarter of 2015, representing some 17 billion views, nearly three-quarters were lifted from elsewhere. Unlike YouTube, Facebook has no "Content ID" system, which automatically detects infringing content and allows creators to claim a share of the revenue. The company will take the videos down if you pester them, but only after a couple days. That's after the video has gotten almost all the views — and provided space for all the paid advertising — it's likely to get.

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All in all, not a promising start for such a huge internet company.